Stuart Chapman Hill is a graduate student, a songwriter, and a composer. Now he is also the winner of the 2016 Excellence-In-Teaching Award.
Since coming to MSU he has twice taught the College of Music’s songwriting course. A former student, describing Hill, evoked the Maya Angelou quotation, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget what you made them feel.” This makes perfect sense. When asked to describe his teaching style, Hill stresses the individuality of his students. “I am not there to "teach" the practice of songwriting in any convergent way,” Hill said, “since each writer possesses her own compelling voice and set of skills and areas for growth. It has truly blown my musical and pedagogical minds—and I repeatedly have been stunned by the songs that students create. Leading that class is a pleasure and privilege.”
The key concept is leadership. Hill does not lead his classes from the front of the room. Instead he sees himself as a collaborator. “For me,” Hill explains, “the stakes are high, since teaching is at the center of my professional identity. For my students—whether they are writers in the songwriting class or pre-service teachers in the music education coursework I've taught—I hope that my teaching can be part of affirming their pursuits as musicians and educators and part of critically examining their own musical/pedagogical styles, beliefs, and practices. I hope they view me as good company for the journey—someone they can consult, someone who will both push and support them in the process of pursuing their aspirations.”
Hill’s scholarship ties directly to his work in the classroom. He is studying the working processes of professional songwriters with an eye to how their processes can inform the work of K–12 music teachers. When asked about his favorite classroom activity, Hill said “based on feedback from previous songwriting students, I added a co-writing assignment to the songwriting class in which class members were paired and developed new songs together, and then submitted written reflections about the process. Pairing the students involved a little bit of alchemy and a lot of guesswork, but the results were astonishing. Not only was it beautiful to hear what happened when the writers' voices united in their shared creations, but also it was inspiring to read their thoughtful reflections about how working with another writer had both stretched them and help them to clarify their own styles and processes.”
